BP Pensioner Group
The CampaignThe BP Pensioner Group is campaigning to protect BP UK defined benefit pensions
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Latest News & Information
BP Pensioner Group Response to Options for Defined Benefit Schemes (17/04/2024)
The BP Pensioner Group has published its response to the public consultation by the Department of Work and Pensions on Options for Defined Benefit Schemes. The response can be viewed by clicking here.
BP Shareholders Raise Questions For The Board At The BP Annual General Meeting (12/04/2024)
BP Pensioner Group members who are BP shareholders are submitting questions for BP to answer at the BP Annual General Meeting on 25 April 2024. These questions include: The BP Annual Report and Accounts includes all of the UK Pension Fund surplus as an asset of the...
Judge Rules Against BP In US Pension Dispute (30/03/2024)
In a long running BP pension dispute in the US a federal judge ruled that the company "committed fraud or similarly inequitable conduct" in how it announced a pension formula change more than 30 years ago. For details...
Why was the BP Pensioner Group formed?
As far back as 1992, BP assured their UK pension scheme members that, unless the company was in financial distress, their future pension increases would be raised in line with the cost of living.
In 2022 the BP Pension Trustees decided not to ask BP for a discretionary increase to help pensioners with a large rise in the cost of living. BP had told the Trustees that such a request would have been declined.
In 2023 the Trustees informed pensioners that they had asked BP’s consent for a 4% discretionary pension increase, which they viewed as appropriate; however BP did not support the Trustees recommendation.
The result is that over the last two years (2022 and 2023), members of the BP Pension Fund have lost 11% in the value of their UK pensions at a time when BP is making record profits.
On the 18 April 2023 a BP Pensioner Group was formed, to campaign for the objectives described below.
BP Pensioner Group Objectives
- BP and the Trustee to restore the real value of the pension to the level of May 2021 with a 17% increase*.
- BP and the Trustee to honour the 1992 policy of increasing pensions in line with the cost of living wherever possible provided the Fund has sufficient resources to do so.
- a) All existing discretionary benefits to be preserved on partial or total buy-out, including the commitment to increase pensions in line with the cost of living.
(b) Fund governance to be improved to provide more pensioner input and eliminate sponsor conflicts of interest. - Any surplus assets left after completion of a buy-out to be distributed between member beneficiaries and bp on a fair and equitable basis.
* comprising 11% for absent discretionary increases in 2022 and 2023, 5.2% to cover annual RPI inflation to December 2023, and the remainder to make good the underpayment since May 2022.
Objectives updated 10 January 2024
Who is working on the BP Pension Group Campaign?
The campaign is a network not an organisation. We have a relatively small number of volunteers in different groups, working on your behalf. The BP Pensioner Group consists of an overall Steering Group with various working groups:
- Campaign Library
- Fund Raising
- Legal
- Main Stream Media
- Peer Review
- Political & Regulatory
- Shareholders & Investors
- Social Media & Website
Latest Media Statements
BP Pensioner Group Welcomes Parliament Select Committee Report on UK Defined Benefit Pensions – (26/03/2024)
“The report resets the UK pension debate - by reminding employers and trustees that the interests of pension scheme members are paramount.” The BP Pensioner Group – representing 2,800 members of the BP Defined Benefit Pension Scheme – strongly welcomed the findings of...
BP ‘Information Session’ Fails Pensioners ‘Top 8 Questions’ Test – (21/02/2024 – updated 23/02/2024)
“A missed opportunity and lack of good faith by BP leadership” BP held an ‘on-line’ Information Session for members of its UK Pension Scheme on 20th February 2024. This one-way broadcast was arranged to address concerns raised by thousands of pensioners regarding...
BP Pensioner Information Session – 20 February 2024
BP’s 20 February 2024 Pensioner Information Session – an online TV programme with 1300 pensioner viewers on the day and presented by Kerry Dryburgh (BP VP), Kate Thomson (BP CFO) and Gary Hibbard (ex-Head BP Pensions) – left many unresolved issues in the growing #BP pension dispute.
The BP Pensioner Group has meticulously analysed all bp’s 9 answers to the questions in the bp online programme. To read the details click here.